Bargnani is coming off an injury-shortened season that was his worst since his second year in the league, and had become a lightning rod for a struggling Toronto team that missed the playoffs this past season for the fifth year in a row.

The Raptors attempted to trade Bargnani this past season before two significant elbow injuries derailed any serious interest. The puzzling Italian centre, who looked so good at times in the 2011-12 season, spent more than half this past campaign on the bench.

The seven-foot, 256-pound centre was drafted first overall by the Raptors in 2006, and went on to average 15.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game over seven seasons in Toronto. The Raptors made the playoffs just once since drafting him.

Bargnani has two years and about $22.2 million remaining on his contract.

The moratorium was to allow the league to establish next season’s salary cap which was announced late Tuesday as $58.7 million.

The tax level is $71.7 million, with harsher penalties starting this season for teams that exceed it.

Contracts such as the one Dwight Howard agreed to with Houston couldn’t be signed during the league’s moratorium period while the cap was calculated.

The cap is a slight increase from this season’s $58 million.

The mid-level exception for non-taxpayers is $5.15 million. It’s $3.2 million for teams over the tax, and there’s a mid-level worth $2.7 million for teams with room under the salary cap.

In previous seasons, teams paid a $1 for every dollar over the luxury tax level.

Now, teams will pay a $1.50 for every dollar over the tax in the first $4.99 million over the tax level, $1.75 for every dollar between $5 million and $9.99 million over the tax, $2.50 for every dollar between $10 million and $14.99 million over and 3.25 for every dollar between $15 million and $19.99 million. The tax rate increases another 50 cents for each addition $5 million after $20 million.

Looking ahead to the Brooklyn Nets’ projected payroll of about $98 million in 2013-14, they will pay nearly $70 million in taxes — compared to $26.25 million under the old tax system. That’s essentially an astronomical $170 million committed to team salary for the Nets and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who wants desperately to win a championship.

“It’s great for our fans (and) great for the organization that we have an owner who is willing to spend the spend money but I think spend it wisely,” Nets general manager Billy King said Wednesday morning. “We wouldn’t have just spent this way if we didn’t think it would help us advance our common goal of winning a championship. That’s really what we’re trying to do.

“He believes in what we’re doing. We talk about it. We map it out going forward so we have a strategy looking at where we are now for the next couple of years and where we’re going to get to down the road.”

The Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks are also among teams expected to pay luxury taxes next season.

The league fought hard for the higher luxury tax rate during the 2011 lockout in an effort to decrease the gap between the highest-spending and lowest-spending teams and help disperse the better players more evenly throughout the league so the big-money teams couldn’t procure all the top talent with nominal financial penalties.

Also in 2013-14, teams will have to spend at least 90 per cent of the salary cap on team payroll, which will be $52.811 million.

The league also informed the six taxpaying teams from last season of their tax bill: the Los Angeles Lakers will pay $29,259,739, the Miami Heat $13,346,242, the Nets $12,883,647, the New York Knicks $9,962,406, the Chicago Bulls $3,932,336 and the Boston Celtics $1,181,640. Of the $70,566,010 that the league collects from those teams, up to 50 per cent will be distributed evenly to the remaining 24 teams.

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